News

While the District of Columbia continues to wage war against the scourge of synthetic marijuana, one of the city’s leading administrators has suggested that the legalization of drugs like cocaine and heroin, in a manner similar to what the city has done with marijuana, might be in the best interest of the community.

Earlier last week, D.C Attorney General Karl Racine appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to discuss some of the issues the District has encountered due to the sale of dangerous synthetic cannabinoids called Spice and K2.

During the segment, a caller from Illinois chimed in, arguing that one of the primary reasons this ghastly alternative high even exists is the continued prohibition on all drugs.

The caller said that the criminalization of all drugs is a “civil liberties issue, and when people want to consume substances that alter their state of consciousness they should be allowed to. Now, if you didn’t have such a crackdown on drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin, there wouldn’t even be a market for synthetic drugs.”

It was apparent throughout the caller’s opinionated spiel that Racine did not totally disagree with his argument. His basic accord on the issue was later confirmed in his response.

Complaints from legal marijuana farms have halted the issuance of hemp farming licenses in Oregon- for now.

Both types of farms are authorized under Oregon law. Marijuana, used for medicine and recreation, and hemp, used for industrial and commercial purposes, are plants in the same family. That means they can cross-breed.

The Oregonian reports that marijuana farmers are concerned that the hemp plants will spread their pollen over wide swaths of countryside and accidentally pollinate their marijuana plants. Cannabis plants are genetically selected to produce robust flowers typically grown in the absence of male plants.

No males, no seeds. Marijuana flowers without seeds, generically called sensimilla, are the most cost-effective and prized of the cannabis flower products. Plants that put energy into growing seeds produce smaller flowers, which reduce their market value. Fields that are accidentally pollinated could cost growers thousands of dollars on every acre from low yields.

Marijuana farmers successfully argued to the state government that an unchecked expansion of hemp farming could lead to trouble. They propose that hemp farming be banned in the entire southern portion of Oregon- the area most known for producing an outstanding marijuana crop- or at least kept away from the three most prosperous counties for cannabis production.

Existing hemp farmers can continue to plow their fields. The ban is on new licensees, and it looks like the issue won’t be settled until 2017, per the Oregonian.

Michigan’s next big marijuana conference is one month away! Join Rick Thompson for the Michigan Cannabis Business Development Conference on September 26 at the Holiday Inn Gateway Centre.

Fourteen years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs and took a public health approach to illegal drug use. After years of overdose deaths and skyrocketing HIV/AIDS, Portugal now the second lowest number of drug-related deaths in all of Europe.

Other countries are now looking to replicate Portugal’s success. Chief among them is Ireland, which is considering the view that drug abuse should be dealt with as a public health rather than criminal justice issue.

Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, recently invited representatives from regional drug and alcohol task forces to a roundtable discussion in Dublin on a possible move toward Portugal-style drug policy. The meeting produced wide consensus on decriminalization of all drugs and diverting funding for prosecution to treatment, according to The Irish Times.

“There has to be a continuum of care… an understanding around supports, resources, counseling and all those different things,” Ó Ríordáin said.

Local governments in Florida are taking marijuana law reform into their own hands by adopting marijuana decriminalization ordinances as an alternative to more severe state sanctions.

We first wrote about this trend in July when Florida’s largest county, Miami-Dade, passed an ordinance allowing local law enforcement to treat marijuana possession offenses involving 20 grams or less as a civil infraction, punishable by a $100 fine.

Many other communities have followed suit. City commissioners in Miami Beach imposed a similar policy in July; authorities in Hallandale Beach acted likewise last week.

Key West City City officials are poised to finalize a similar measure in September while lawmakers in Palm Beach County are considering taking similar action. Decriminalization is also gaining momentum among lawmakers in the city of St. Petersburg.

These changes to local laws are especially significant in Florida, where state lawmakers have failed to even consider amending its archaic and overly punitive marijuana policies. Consequently, Florida possesses the third highest annual marijuana possession arrest total (roughly 60,000 arrests per year) in the nation.

Here's an amusing byproduct of the legalization of marijuana use in some American states: it's putting a strain on the nation's freight network. The Wall Street Journal reportsthat Denver, a central hub for transportation of goods across the country, is experiencing a shortage of warehouse space due to increased demand from marijuana producers.

Cresa Partners, a real estate brokerage firm, reports that as much as a third of new warehouse space leased in Colorado over the past 18 months has gone to marijuana growers and distributors. They need ample space to conduct their business, so they're competing hard for it when it becomes available and raising prices as a result. The WSJnotes a 10 percent increase in warehouse rent prices and a doubling of the cost to buy warehouse space in Colorado since the start of last year. This has left local businesses frustrated, but it's also adding to the costs of interstate traders who are finding it hard to secure storage for their goods as they pass between the US west coast and midwest.

Five PTSD patients filed suit Thursday in Denver District Court. They're challenging a July decision by the Colorado Board of Health not to make PTSD the first condition added to Colorado's medicalpot eligibility list in 15 years.

The PTSD rejection came despite a recommendation from Colorado's chief medical officer and a panel of physicians. They said that questions remain about how effective pot is as a PTSD treatment, but that people with PTSD are commonly using pot anyway and that the designation would allow for better understanding about how people are using the drug.

But the Board of Health cited insufficient federal research and denied the request on a 6-2 vote.

A lawyer for the PTSD patients, Bob Hoban, said the board applied an improper standard in its rejection.